''Upstream'' is a 1927 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

. A "backstage drama", the film is about a Shakespearean actor and a woman from a knife-throwing act. The film was considered to be a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

, but in 2009 a print was discovered in the

New Zealand Film Archive The New Zealand Film Archive was established in 1981. On 1 August 2014 the archive was amalgamated with Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero and the Television New Zealand Archive to form Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. 2009 lost film recovery In earl ...

. It is considered to be the first Ford film to show some influence of German director

F. W. Murnau Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at t ...

, who began working at Fox Studios in 1926. From Murnau, Ford learned how to use forced perspectives and

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

lighting, which the American director then integrated into his own more naturalistic and direct filmmaking style.

Cast

* Nancy Nash as Gertie Ryan *

Earle Foxe Earle Foxe (born Earl Aldrich Fox; December 25, 1891 – December 10, 1973) was an American actor. Early years Foxe was born in Oxford, Ohio, to Charles Aldrich Fox, originally of Flint, Michigan, and Eva May Herron. He was educated at Ohio Sta ...

as Eric Brasingham *

Grant Withers Granville Gustavus Withers (January 17, 1905 – March 27, 1959) was an American film actor who acted under the screen name Grant Withers. With early beginnings in the silent era, Withers moved into sound films, establishing himself with a lis ...

as Jack La Velle *

Lydia Yeamans Titus Lydia Yeamans Titus (12 December 1857 – 30 December 1929) was an Australian-born American singer, dancer, comedienne, and actress who had a lengthy career in vaudeville and cinema. She was remembered on stage for her ''Baby-Talk'' act and a ...

as Miss Hattie Breckenbridge * Raymond Hitchcock as Star Boarder *

Emile Chautard Emil or Emile may refer to: Literature *''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life *''Emil and the Detective ...

as Campbell Mandare *

Ted McNamara Edward Joseph McNamara (19 September 1894 – February 1928) was an Australian vaudevillian who made a career on stage in Australia, the United States, and in Hollywood silent films before dying suddenly in 1928. At various times he has credited ...

as Callahan and Callahan *

Sammy Cohen Sammy Cohen (1902–1981) was an American film actor and comedian. He was one of several popular Jewish comedians acting in films during the late 1920s.Erens p. 91-92 Selected filmography * '' What Price Glory?'' (1926) * '' The Return of Peter ...

as Callahan and Callahan * Judy King as Sister Team * Lillian Worth as Sister Team *

Jane Winton Jane Winton (October 10, 1905 – September 22, 1959) was an American film actress, dancer, opera soprano, writer, and painter. Early years Winton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1905. The deaths of her father when she was four yea ...

as Soubrette * Harry A. Bailey as Gus Hoffman (as Harry Bailey) * Francis Ford as Juggler

Recovery

In 2009 at the invitation of the

, the

National Film Preservation Foundation The National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) is an independent, nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America's film heritage. Growing from a national planning effort led by the Library of Congress, the NFPF began op ...

sent consultants Brian Meacham and Leslie Ann Lewis to assess its holdings of long unseen

nitrate film Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...

prints of American silent films. The cache was found to include astonishing treasures of at least 75 American silent films unknown to exist in the United States, including a complete tinted nitrate print of ''Upstream'' and a trailer for another lost

feature, ''

Strong Boy ''Strong Boy'' is a 1929 American silent comedy film directed by John Ford which had a synchronized music track. The film, which was Ford's last silent film, is now considered to be lost. A trailer for the film was discovered in the New Zealand ...

'' (1929).http://www.cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/allegati/GCM10_07R&R.pdf 2010 Pordenone Silent Film Festival catalog--retrieved November 18, 2010. The New Zealand Film Archive turned out to have many American films that had never been shipped back to the United States after they ran in theaters. The films were supposed to be destroyed at the end of their distribution run, but some were stashed away instead.King, Susan
"Silent film treasures to be preserved"
June 7, 2010, ''Los Angeles Times'', retrieved same day ''Upstream'' was considered so important that, unlike other films discovered in the New Zealand archive, it was restored in New Zealand.

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

, a descendant company of the studio that made the movie, supported the preservation of the film in collaboration with the National Film Preservation Foundation and the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

film archive. ''Upstream'' received a "repremiere" at the

in September 2010. and a European screening at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone Italy in October 2010. Michael Mortilla wrote music for the AMPAS screening, and Donald Sosin for the Pordenone event. Only 15% of Ford's silent films are known to have survived as of 2010.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Upstream (Film) 1927 films 1927 comedy films 1920s rediscovered films Silent American comedy films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Films directed by John Ford Fox Film films Rediscovered American films 1920s American films

Cast

Recovery

See also

References

External links